Email: October 31, 2016

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! 

This past week was probably the most crazy ever! With receiving a new companion (actually 2) and having a baptism things have been insane. BUT SO GOOD!  Well, i received 2 new companions. First, i work with sister Barboza. She is a hilarious brazillian who doesn´speak any English. The best was when i had to go find her, i was just wandering around alone riding on metros but all is well because somehow i found her! The other is sister Maingot, a sweet american who has the best attitude ever. She broke her leg. She lives with us but stays in the house all day. She is amazing. Both these sister are great and they have already helped me so much. Sister barboza is awesome, and i think my language is improving. She helps me learn a lot and we laugh at all the mistakes i make!  She is an amazing missionary. Both these sisters love their missions so much and are great examples for me.   I feel so happy this week and also i can understand how people love their missions. 

DANI WAS BAPTIZED!!! it was amazing. Things were absolutely crazy trying to plan everything and get everything ready for the baptism, but the lord blessed us and it was a beautiful service. Dani invited a ton of her family and we invited all the investigators we could and we had 28 investigators at the baptism! it was amazing. Me and sister barboza after ran around talking with all of her family and making plans to visit them in the future. It was awesome. Also it was just the coolest thing ever to see someone go through the process of completley changing their life to follow the savior. Dani had the biggest smile on her face when she came up out of the water. She also bore a very sweet testimony and will be such a strength for this ward! 

Other than the baptism we have been trying to find new people to teach. We have knocked some doors and i think it is so fun. I get so excited when people open up that i start talking really fast and the people don´t understand but then i just try again. I just get to bear my testimony twice! 

SO glad you guys are doing well. I can feel your prayers. I am loving being a missionary! it is the best. I love you guys! 

Sister Hulsey 

Email: October 24, 2016

Dear Family,

Loved reading your letter! We had a great week this week, filled with many miracles! We were able to bring a lot of members to our lessons this week, que benção! Also we had a family home evening this past tuesday and we watched the restoration film! i love that film! and joseph smith! every time i hear the story of joseph smith i learn something new! I gain a stronger testimony every time i watch that movie. It was very spiritual and a great family home evening! We were able to teach some great lessons with dona l and our other investigators this week. Also, we have been trying to contact this one family for weeks now and have not been able to get a hold of them or find them in their house. we randomly (no- through the spirit) decided this week to try one more time. As we were walking to their house we walked passed 2 guys. Me and sis nagliati both had the impression that those were the people we were looking for. Well, the guys ended up stopping us and it was d- the dad of the family! we were able to set up another appointment to come back and visit them. God is so good. 

Yesterday was stake conference for us and it was SO good. we talked a lot about how members need to help the missionaries. We were able to bring d and f! dona l was SO ready to go but of course she didn´t sleep well saturday night and she woke up with a lot of pain and stuff. She told us she had everything laid out ready to come with us - her dress, her bag everything. but in the end she couldn´t come! We were heartbroken but have faith that she will come this week. Rain or shine i am dragging her to church this week. She is really making a lot of progress, She is having a hard time changing because she is pretty elderly and pretty catholic. But little by little she is changing. She also has a very hard time remembering stuff and so she will say prayers but only if she can repeat our words. so in her prayer the other day we had her ask for help to leave virgin mary and she hesitated but said it! And then me and sis nagliati sneakily took 3 of her virgin mary pictures. The next day we explained she received and answer to her prayer! haha she said she is thinking of jesus a lot more now! yay for dona l.

Well transfers are coming tomorrow and i will be receiving a new companion.  sis Nagliati is going to be transfered. I am really sad to leave her, but it will be good. It is hard because we are having a baptism this friday! i have so many feelings. I am really nervous to have to lead the area agian, to try and prepare everything for the baptism, but i am glad i have this opportunity. I am learning.  . I know everything will work out to be good, i am just a little nervous!  The atonement is such a needed thing. I am beyond grateful for a savior. 

Sounds like you guys had a great week, how fun to keep up the tradition of lagoon. Looks like it was really fun. It is always nice to have a break from school. Thanks for activating my card. I hope this week goes well with our baptism on friday! keep praying for D! She is going to be such an amazing member, i just hope everything goes smoothly. I am glad i get to be a missionary, because every day and week i learn how much more we need a savior. I know that heavenly father sent his son because he loves us so much. He wants us to be happy now and forever. I hope we can all find more ways to rely on our savior and become more like him! 

Love you Guys,

Sister Emma Hulsey

Email: October 17, 2016

Hello family!!! 

Another crazy week. First of all, the weather is starting to get really rainy! But i actually really like the rain so tudo bem! I also got some awesome rainboots for 11 euros and also an umbrella at the china store for 5 euros. I was pretty excited! I guess the rain won´t stop until April but at least i am not as sweaty! 

We had a family home evening this week for our ward. It was our first time doing it. But it turned out pretty good! we had 4 less actives come and 2 investigators! Plus other ward members! We played a little game and then me and sis nagliati gave a spiritual message then ate some food! I think we are going to do another one soon! We want to do a halloween party! 

I got to go on a division with sis nance! Sister nance has one more transfer than me. She is SO fun. We were able to teach like 3 lessons and found a referrals house! everyone wanted to know how it went because both sister nance and i are pretty new here but it was a really great day! then she spent the night and we had studies together the next morning. It was really fun! 

On friday we had our lunch with the refugee family! holy moly it was delicious! i ate a lot! Malek was teaching us how to say different types of fruit in arabic. I must have said it pretty badly because he couldn´t stop laughing! It was really cool and they said they really want to keep learning about our church and they would try again to go to church! 

Also dani moved her baptism date!! she will be baptized the 28th of this month! GLORIA PARA DEUS!! She is only smoking like 1 cigarrette these days (used to be like 15) and she keeps all of our commitments! We made her baptismal invites and she was so excited to hand them out. We are so excited for her. She really worries about her sins in the past (she always tells us how she has already broken all the commandments) so her baptism will be so special because she can be completley clean! 

Dona Leila didn´t come to church because yesterday was the anniversary of her mom´s death. She said she needed to watch something about virgin mary on tv to feel better, Well, we went and visited after church and she said that nossa senhora didn´t help her feel better. We told her she needs to come to church and she said this next week she will! We even got her saying that on video so next week, SHE IS COMING! Poor thing, she is having a hard time but we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ will help her! 

Yeah so Rosa broke up with us last week, but she called us again yesterday and said she wants to try again! We totally want to help her but she has to choose for herself. We are trying again though and are praying a lot for her. I think she already spent her money for this month on drugs again, but we will keep on keepin on! 

OH also this week we started teaching F. We met felipe because we got onto the bus and he asked us if we had change for 5 euros, we only had 4 but he took it. We asked him for his number so that we could return his euro to him. Well, we called him a few days later and he was shocked! He told us that he thought he would never see us again, he didn´t believe people like that existed! We met up with him and gave him his euro and a restoration pamphlet and invited him to church. HE CAME! then we met with him again and taught the first lesson. He is awesome! He is very abstract. And thinks a lot. But after the first lesson he said before he used to think there were many paths in life but he realizes that there is only one! The only reason we haven´t passed him to the elders yet.  He has piercings, dresses very nice, and wears make up! The best was everyone´s faces when we brought him to church But really he is so open to learning! . We are going to read the proclamation with him this week so hopefully that goes well. The gospel is for EVERYONE! 

Also we taught A! she is from the spirits church or something but she has a ton of Faith in jesus. She wants to read the book of mormon but she also wants us to read a book from her religion. She was super sweet though and gave us inscents! Our house smells pretty good now. 

Time just keeps passing! I am happy to be a missionary! I have been trying to study how to recognize the spirit. It is such a cool gift that we have from God. Also i just keep thinking about Charity. Charity will help me in every aspect of my work and my life in general. I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. Amazing grace, i am continually lost but i am always found! (in more than just one way, thank goodness sis nagliati is good with directions). But really, God is our father and through his Son Jesus Christ, we can be saved and have eternal happiness. 

Love you guys so much! Sounds like things are pretty crazy back at home but just remember to always keep faith and always follow the Savior. That´s the only thing that matters. 

Love

Sister Emma Hulsey

Email: October 10, 2016

Boa Tarde! Como vocês estão?

This week was crazy! Lots of stuff happened but whenever i come and sit down at the computer i always forget it all. That´s why my letters are so scattered because whatever i remember i just write it. Anyways... last pday after we emailed we went to a fair! it was so awesome! We bought vinho doce. We had some peeps research it to see if it had alchohol and we got the answer no. So we drank some. I still don´t know for sure if it had alcohol or not but it was tasty! haha we bought some fancy cheese too. 

We were able to teach some awesome lessons this week too! First with Dona Leila. oh we love dona leila! So we have been really trying to get her to church. We had a powerful lesson about church with her and then she told us "this week i believe i won´t go" and then i just looked at her and told her "but we believe you will" and then me and sis nagliatti were able to find out some of her fears about church and help her. One of the things preventing her from church is her hair! haha she said her hair is ugly. So i suggested she could wear a hat and she about fell out of her chair. She is a very put together woman and just gasped and said she doesn´t have the head for a hat! Now it´s our joke with her every time we see her, we ask about the hat and every time she still jumps a little and says no! Anyways, in the end, she didn´t come to church with us because this week she said she had to say goodbye to her saints. She said this would be the last week and she will say goodbye and she will come to church with us this week! We are going over there to paint her nails and help her with her hair. (oh after i suggested the hat she remembered she had this wig thing so she pulled it out and we experimented with it and she said it will do!) 

Also we have been working and praying a lot for Dani. She is still so incredible! She is truly trying to repent. She is having a hard time accepting forgiveness for herself. Buuuut we had this MIRACULOUS lesson with her. We found out that Paulo,(the guy she is waiting for to get baptized) can´t baptize her. Which was great news for us but she went crazy! But then in the middle of our lesson, paulo called Dani!! (it was crazy because he never calls) and we told Dani to answer it right then and talk to him about how he can´´t baptize her. Anyways, it was crazy and the spirit was guiding us. Multiple times during the lesson me and sis nagliati looked at each other and were like "oh man what do we do, she is freaking out" but lets just say as of yesterday, she mostly agreed to move her baptismal date to the 2nd of november! We are going to keep praying for her! 

Also, we received an online reference to go teach a guy named Malek. We went over there and turns out he and his wife are refugees from syria! They don´t speak any Portuguese and speak a few words of english. But their daughter in law and son translate for them. We were able to get to know them a little and talk a litttle about the book of mormon and Joseph Smith. Then in the end we asked if we could say a prayer and they said sure so they turned out the lights and lit a candle and i said the prayer! it was the best! Malek has the cutest smile. We are sad because they are not in our area so we have to pass them to some elders. But we told them we would come pick them up for church with the elders so yesterday we did and it was so funny. But malek and his wife invited us to go have lunch with them this week to try syrian food. I am syriasly excited!!! They having such a hard time adjusting to life here and were so grateful just for our smiles! I hope all goes well with them in the future! 

Yesterday was a great sunday! I am SO grateful for the Sacrament. When i partook yesterday, i felt such a peace enter into my heart. I know that through Jesus Christ we can ALWAYS receive forgiveness. I can try every single day to be better. I am grateful to be a missionary. I truly feel like i am coming to know my savior more. Every day i feel more indebted to him. Mom i know that jesus can help us with whatever it is we need help with. Sometimes, it´s a life long battle buuut every day we have a fresh start. Something that i think about is HOW we can rely on Jesus. One way is through Charity. If we purely love Christ, we will be like him and serve others. 

I´m glad you guys are staying busy and happy! Eli sounds like he is doing great! i am happy for him! and adam too, i am excited to hear how the play goes.

Love you guys SO much!

Sister Emma Hulsey

Email: October 3, 2016

Ola!

Wow it is always a pleasure to hear from you guys. Sounds like you guys had a great week, filled with many things. I´m glad you guys enjoyed conference because I LOVED IT!! I want to rewatch and read the talks because we watched all of it in Portuguese. haha it was different. The lord helped me though and I was able to understand quite a bit of it when i really concentrated. But the coolest thing was was that I could feel the spirit so much and received so much revelation. We had a few investigators come watch it with us! They said they liked it as well! Our amazing investigator Dani was so cute. She got all dressed up and she told us she had to look good for the prophet! Me and sis nagliati were so excited to actually see the prophets and apostles because that is our message!! we have a living prophet and the true and only church of Jesus Christ here on the earth today. I too LOVED the talk about Joy. Every experience we have in life is to bring us happiness. an interesting thought. Also i think in the womens conference there was a talk that mentioned the scripture about knock and i will open. We have that promise from the Lord. So that is where faith comes in. We must keep knocking and keep trying because we know that he WILL answer. Man, conference was really just the best!

So this week we taught a powerful lesson to Dani about baptism. We watched the baptism of Christ vídeo with her and when it ended, we were all in tears and she says day 31 of december. That´s when she will be baptized however, that is still 3 months away...she is waiting because her boyfriend is in cabo verde and doesn´t get back until then (but they are not even that serious and me and sis nagliati don´t think they will stay together so ..) we really want her to move it closer because we know satan is going to try and work with her until then. Well, after conference she said wow all of them just kept talking about baptism. So we talked with her how god is talking with her. She still wants to wait but i think the idea is definitley in her head that it should be sooner!! we are praying to know how to help her!

Rosa also attended conference with us! she is still really crazy  but this month when she receives her Money we are going to work with her to not spend it on drugs! oh man we felt like she needed a blessing because she had a lot of bad feelings right before conference so the elders came to give her a blessing. it was cool but Rosa kind of has this thing for younger men so she was in heaven having the attention of 2 elders! Me and sis nagliati couldnºt help but laugh.

Well life is just great over here in Portugal! Seriously the funniest things happen every day, and it just doesnºt work to explain it over email! but i am just laughing all the time and just basking in the spirit all the time as well. It´s the best when you get to bear your testimony of tithing to a gypsy with no teeth smoking a cigarrete and his dog climbing over you! And the spirit can touch them! What a privelege i have. I feel like i am really coming to know my Savior. I am SO grateful to have the chance to repent every day. I am so glad that I know the way to salvation and eternal happiness (which means joy in this life!)

love you all!

Sister Hulsey

Email: September 26, 2016

ALOHA!!!

I am so glad Sis Poole texted Aunt Natalie! yeah we had this Hawaiin party here in Porto and they were there! It was really fun to talk with them! The party was super fun too! They were playing some worldly music though and I couldn´t help but dance. We had an investigator there too and so she was able to meet some peeps! Man me and Sister Nagliati would hand out so many invites for that party though. Every time we got on a bus I would say you take front I take back and we hand invites to everyone! Now we will have to do that for Conference! Yes, we get to watch conference! I think all the session this Saturday and Sunday! We are hoping to have a lot of investigators there! I am so excited to be able to hear from our living prophet today and the apostles! What a privilege. Haha oh Caleb, I love him! Yeah Christmas will be a great day! Wow I wish I could have been there for the primary program! I am proud of Caleb and Eli. sounds like they did a great job. We only have like 3 or 4 kids in primary, so I don´t think they´re doing a program. Sister Nagliati and I  are trying right now actually to really work with this ward. It has some strong members but they are a little burnt out. We are praying to know how to better help and serve them! 

Wow congratulations to Gma! What an exciting thing to celebrate! Without her, or the misssionaries that taught her, I wouldn´t be here! It´s so fun to be with Sister Nagliati-every day we make oil and vinegar salad and then we drink the leftover vinegar!! And she doesn´´t care if I´m loud because she is too. 

OK so about Dani, the woman who stopped us. SHE IS INCREDIBLE!!! I don´t even believe she is real. She is totally receptive to our message and truly wants to change her life. She is doing great with quitting smoking. We made her a calendar where she smokes one less cigarette a day and has a new scripture every day to read and uses prayer. We try to really focus our lessons on the Savior and the enabling power of the atonement for her! She fed us dinner this week, took us out to crepes, gave us a ride to church, and offered to take us grocery shopping. She bought a knee length dress for church (cause she only had mini skirts!) and gave a ride home to one of our other investigators! I pray that the Lord will continue to give her strength! 

Also we are teaching a super cute family and the mom and baby came to church!! She was only able to make it for sacrament but she said she really liked it!  Her baby, Simao, is the cutest thing and during the hymns he would start dancing! He did really well in Sacrament Meeting too! She really likes our messages. Her husband works every Sunday though. And they are not married. So Sis Nagliati and I really want to teach some powerful lessons so they will really want to change and be baptized! and Rosa...well she really needs some help. Sis Nagliati and I are at a loss on how to help her. Every time she calls us telling us she is not ok we tell her to read and pray and we bear testimony of our Savior. Other than that there  isn´t much we can do! 

The Lord is blessing us with so many miracles! It is so humbling because I realize every day how imperfect I am. I mess up every single day. Yet because of the atonement, I have the chance to try again every day. The Lord is so merciful! I know he loves us to much! He is in the details of our lives! I love that dots theme for YW (depond on the Savior). I realize more every day how dependent I am on the Savior, which makes me want to share this message. It´s the single greatest thing we can give-a message of hope and peace. I love you guys! Hope you have a wonderful week! and I hope conference is a great experience! 

SisterEmma Hulsey

Oh man- I am starting to kind of like fish. Dani made us codfish with creme and it wasn´t bad! 

Email: September 19, 2016

Querida Familia,

´This week has been incredible! First of all, my new companion is Sis Nagliati. I. LOVE. HER. Her parents are Italian but she grew up in Brazil but also lived in England for a little bit so she speaks perfect English and Portuguese! But she totally has the attitude of an Italian. My favorite thing to do is we introduce ourselves as Italians! I am just totally trying to become more Italian every day. She is absolutely an incredible missionary. I have already learned so much from her. She has really good ideas and wants to leave everything better than she found it. She is SO nice and SO encouraging to me! We have already seen so many miracles! I didn´t realize how trunky I was but now I have so many other things on my mind (like our investigators and trying not to get lost and Portuguese) that there isn´t too much room to think about home. I am feeling more like myself again and happier. I know Heavenly Father sent Sis Nagliati to me because I needed her! 

Well, we have seen so many miracles. First of all, we haven´t gotten that lost! Only a few times but hey, we are learning the area faster. Second, we finally were able to contact this reference we received and she is marked for baptism! She is amazing and has so much faith. Her name is Dona Leila and she always tells us she feels the spirit so strong when we are with her. Also, Sis Smith and I were teaching a gypsy family ever since I had arrived here. The father never participated in the lessons and they just weren´t progressing. Well, Sis Nagliati and I went over there and the father came and listened and a cousin too. The kids (for the first time) stayed quiet and yesterday the mom came to church!!! She was baptized 14 years ago but hasn´t been to church in 13 years!! We were so happy for her but her kids were going crazy at church so they only stayed for 2 meetings. We are going to try and plan stuff for the kids to do so Rute can enjoy church more. Also the cooooolest thing happened last night. Ok we were on our way home and I looked in my bag and realized I lost my planner somewhere. We decided to go back to the place we thought it would be and we went back but it wasn´t there. I was really upset with myself and felt so bad for wasting so much time having to go back and look for it. Sis Nagliati was so nice and said that we were going to see a miracle because of it. That maybe someone would find it and one day be baptized. Well, we headed home once again. We were walking home from the metro stop and all the sudden a lady jumped out of her car and called us over. She asked if we were the elders so we explained how we are (the female version) and then she looks up to the sky, thanks God, and asks us to explain everything about our church. SHE IS AMAZING!! I don´t know how she saw us, was able to pull over her car and get our attention, but it would have never happened had I not lost my planner because we were getting home really late! I know God is so aware of everything we do and all of his children! We are excited to go and teach her! 

I´m so glad everything seems to be ok at home! You guys sound like you´re having a lot of fun. I am so excited for Stephanie, she will be so awesome. And yes, I know the Lord is blessing our efforts! Luckily, here in Portugal, there usually are some people to teach. There was actually a promise I read from our mission that says Portugal will be the lighthouse for Europe and be the standard. I still get overwhelmed when I think about how I will be doing this for another however many months but if I take it a day at a time I don´t get too stressed. I am happy Eli likes physical therapy. AND HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY birthday to Maren this week!!! Soo exciting and I hope you have lots of fun. Oh man primary program is the best. Please and take a picture of Caleb on the stand! How cool that Grandma joined the church 50 years ago! Oh and I am so excited for conference. I don´t know the details but I hope we can watch it in English. haha I love you guys and pray for you all the time! 

Love

Sis Emma Hulsey